Tag Archives: Ukraine
Meteghan NS fisherman reflects on time in Ukraine helping others
When he was on a humanitarian mission in Ukraine to help the people of his home country, Lex Brukovskiy, like countless others, had an app on his phone that alerted him to the air raids. It would go off constantly. It still does. Now back home in southwestern Nova Scotia, the alert went off at 3 a.m. one recent day. Being thousands of miles away doesn’t make the sound any less terrible. It may even make it worse. The Meteghan fisherman says leaving Ukraine was difficult, but he didn’t have a proper visa to stay. After 90 days, he had to come home. >click to read< 10:17
Ukraine Selling ‘Russian Warship, Go F*** Yourself’ Stamp
Ukraine’s national postal service Ukrposhta said it had been hit by a cyberattack on Friday after sales of a postage stamp depicting a Ukrainian soldier making a crude gesture to a Russian warship went online. Queues formed to buy the stamp when it went on sale at the postal headquarters in Kyiv last week following the sinking of the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Kyiv said it had hit the cruiser Moskva with missiles. Russia said the ship sank while being towed in stormy seas after a fire caused by an explosion of ammunition. >click to read< 13:18
The fisherman and the entrepreneur: How Canadians are helping in Ukraine
One is a Nova Scotia lobster fisherman who delivers supplies to frontline towns. The other is an entrepreneur from Toronto who enlisted in Ukraine’s foreign legion. Lex Brukovskiy and Igor Volzhanin might have different roles, but they are among many Canadians helping Ukraine respond to the Russian invasion. Canadians have been evacuating civilians from areas under Russian attack, housing refugees and keeping hospitals stocked with medicines. They have also been serving in Ukraine’s armed forces, both in combat roles and, like Volzhanin, as administrators. In downtown Lviv, a 34-
year-old Canadian stood outside the national opera house wearing a camouflage jacket and an army green toque. “I was actually, in a way, pleasantly surprised that so many Canadians have come here,” to join the international legion, Volzhanin said. “They’ve come from all over Canada.” >click to read< 07:45
Canadian fisherman helping displaced Ukrainians escapes Chernihiv on foot amid Russian shelling
A Canadian who was trapped in northern Ukraine while attempting to assist displaced citizens has managed to escape the area on foot as bombs rained down. Lex Brukovskiy was stuck in the city of Chernihiv for five days before he was able to walk out on Tuesday, leaving his van behind as Russian shelling of roads and bridges continued. He said in a series of texts that once outside the city in eastern Ukraine, he continued to walk, hitched a ride and then eventually rejoined his original convoy of relief vehicles and reached the western city of Lviv on Thursday. Brukovskiy, a fisherman from Meteghan, N.S., who grew up in Ukraine, says the convoy of vans did rescue six displaced people, as several vehicles managed to get out of the city ahead of him. >click to read< 10:38
N.S. fisherman trapped by Russian shelling as he tries to drive Ukrainians to safety
A Canadian attempting to drive Ukrainians displaced by the war to safety says Russian shelling has trapped him in the city of Chernihiv for three days as food and water supplies dwindle. Speaking Friday from a bomb shelter in the badly damaged city in northern Ukraine, Lex Brukovskiy said he feels the shelling is an immoral tactic targeting innocent people trying to escape the conflict. “It’s dirty. It’s unfair because what the Russian army is doing is just taking civilians hostage,” said Brukovskiy, a lobster fisherman from Nova Scotia who travelled to his native Ukraine to offer help two weeks ago. “They’re not fighting army with army. They’re setting their army against regular people.” >click to read< 17:41
Fisherman from N.S. witnesses heavy damage as he delivers aid in Ukraine
A Nova Scotia fisherman has arrived in Ukraine to help deliver aid to his homeland during the Russian assault on the country. Lex Brukovskiy has a family and lobster-fishing business in Meteghan, N.S., but comes from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where his mother still lives. He raised money in Nova Scotia earlier this month and is now volunteering to deliver aid to people. “Last trip, for example, we delivered medications to Kharkiv and picked up one wounded soldier and a couple of women and children. They also wanted us to load some dogs and cats, but we ran out of room,” >click to read< and listen to the audio report. 19: 15
An Update on Canadian Lobsterman Lex Brukovskiy in Ukraine
Though the air raid sirens shatter his rest, Canadian fisherman Lex Brukovskiy says he’s feeling a sense of calm being back in Ukraine to help his war-ravaged homeland. “Sitting back home and watching it, it was hard,” he said in an interview on Monday. And on Tuesday, he said in a followup telephone interview he’s been assigned a van to drive in a convoy that will make its way to besieged cities in eastern Ukraine with humanitarian supplies before bringing refugees back to safety. “I feel a lot more useful here.” “I’m just doing my part, helping out. He estimates that he’s currently working with about US$20,000 in donations that has come in from friends, fishers and acquaintances, many of them from Meteghan. >click to read the article< 17:55
Trade war, Covid and now Ukraine invasion eat into Alaska seafood sales
First a trade war, then a battle against an infectious virus and now a real war are all affecting Alaska seafood exports. Shipments to China fell from as high as 30% of Alaska’s total seafood export value in the 2010s to 20% in 2020. “The U.S.-China trade war has displaced $500 million of Alaska seafood,” And though people bought more seafood to prepare at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, sales to restaurants and food services fell by 70%, Woodrow said. The food service market “still hasn’t fully recovered.” The Alaska product at risk in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is pink salmon roe. Eastern Europe is a major buyer of the product, he said. “It’s a regional preference.” Alaska in 2021 shipped to Ukraine about $20 million of pink salmon roe,,, >click to read< 11:37
Lobster fisherman from Ukraine now living in Meteghan, returning home to help family
When the war in Ukraine first broke out, Lex Brukovskiy immediately thought about his mother in the city of Lviv, more than 6,400 kilometres from his home in Meteghan, a small fishing village on Nova Scotia’s St. Marys Bay. The 38-year-old has decided to return to his native land in an effort to help his family and the growing number of refugees entering from Ukraine into Poland. Brukovskiy has no idea how long he will be away from his home in 
Meteghan, where his two teenage boys live. He is a lobster boat captain and is leaving in the middle of the lucrative lobster season in southwestern Nova Scotia. Brukovskiy has now hired a temporary captain to operate his boat for the remaining three months of the season and his crew will remain employed. >click to read< 19:41
Should Russia be kicked out of NAFO; its trawler fleet banned from fishing outside Canadian waters?
There’s a case for it considering Canada has closed its airspace to Russian aircraft, and even a call by hockey legend Wayne Gretzky for Russia to be banned from the rescheduled World Juniors this summer in Alberta as a consequence for the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Offshore trawlers from the Russian Federation have access to thousands of tonnes of quota a year in the NAFO zone, including redfish, turbot, and skate. Kicking Russia out of NAFO and banning its offshore draggers from the area (if that’s possible), could be another message to President Vladimir Putin that his invasion of the Ukraine is unacceptable. Below are the NAFO quota tables for 2022, including a breakdown of fish set aside for Russia. >click to read< 09:34
Ukrainian seafood buyers want to connect with Unalaska’s fisheries
International seafood buyers are scheduled to visit Unalaska this month, but they don’t hail from a massive importer like China or Japan. They’re coming from Ukraine — a once-modest market for Alaska fish that’s slowly reemerging after political upheaval and economic crisis. In 2013, Ukraine spent $105 million on American seafood — a record for the Eastern European nation that loves hake, pollock and salmon roe. But two years later, those imports had plummeted almost 70 percent as the Ukrainian government was overthrown and parts of its land occupied by Russia. >click to read<21:22
Ukraine and Russia Face Off Over Fishing Boat
On Sunday, Ukrainian border forces detained the Russian-flagged, Crimean-registered fishing vessel Nord in the Sea of Azov, along with her crew of 10 fishermen. The Ukrainian authorities charge that the Nord illegally crossed Ukraine’s maritime borders. In response to the arrest, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Wednesday that Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service had “hijacked” the Nord. The shipowner, a collective named “First of May,” has appealed directly to the Russian Foreign Ministry for diplomatic intervention. >click to read<15:37
